Repressive Haiti Group Says It Can Be A Loyal Opposition

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Emmanuel "Toto" Constant is counting on President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to include him in his call for reconciliation.

"The day Aristide started talking about reconciliation is the day I gave him a chance," said the tall, rangy leader of a group known by its acronym, FRAPH.

FRAPH is strongly identified with the violent repression of Aristide's supporters during the last year of Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras' regime. The military ousted Aristide, the nation's first democratically elected president, in September 1991.

But Constant, 37, says FRAPH is a political party that is now ready to assume a place among the loyal opposition. He claims up to 300,000 members across Haiti, and he sees them as becoming part of a nationalist, center-right coalition.

But few political observers share his optimism.

"His chances of creating a political party out of this are slim to none," one Western diplomat said.

Aristide supporters say justice should precede reconciliation. Whether reconciliation applies to Constant and other FRAPH members will be determined by Aristide and a still-to-be created truth commission that will have the power to recommend criminal charges.

The acronym FRAPH stands for Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti. "Fraph" also is a French word for the sound of a blow.

Such ambiguity reflects Constant himself. He once served as the director of a welfare institute. But when talk grew of an American invasion, he threatened to poison U.S. troops with a powder made from the bones of AIDS victims.

Constant is the son of a Haitian army general prominent during the reign of self-declared President-for-life Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

Duvalier pioneered the Tonton Macoute, his "national security volunteers," who doubled as secret police, assassins and torturers. Under Cedras' regime, these types were called "attaches." Few, however, draw a distinction between macoutes, attaches and FRAPHistes.

FRAPH emerged in 1993, with financial support from the Haitian army. Constant has been identified in several news accounts as an informant for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a role that usually brings some remuneration.

Openly opposed to Aristide's return, FRAPH sought recruits in poor areas. Last spring, its leading members began talking about it as a political party.

FRAPH did, and still does, have some support among neo-Duvalierists and segments of the middle class concerned about Aristide's populist philosophy.

"Most of the bourgeoisie won't openly say they support Constant's view. But they agree with him," said Richard Widmaier, owner-director of Radio Metropole.

In some rural towns, such as Petit Goave, Aristide supporters say FRAPH members drove them off the streets at night and strutted around brandishing weapons that have yet to be taken from them.

In Port-au-Prince, the nation's biggest city, FRAPH's thuggery has been witnessed. In early October, members of several news organizations saw and photographed FRAPH members shooting at civilians.

After a weeklong visit, the United Nation's new special envoy to Haiti, Lakhdar Brahimi, said last Thursday that he could not predict when the environment here would become "secure and safe." He also said police and the military might not be adequate to oversee local and parliamentary elections early next year because "there are a lot of guns going around that are unaccounted for."

"FRAPH is essentially a floating mass of thugs, petty criminals and ne'er do wells who the military used for enforcement," said a U.S. diplomat. "They didn't join FRAPH because it was a political movement. They joined because it was an opportunity to carry out medium-level criminal activity."

Two days after Christmas last year, a fire that burned out scores of Aristide supporters in the capital's Cite Soleil slum was the work of FRAPH members, said officials of a joint United Nations-Organization of American States commission.

"Their name (FRAPH) comes up repeatedly in the terror spread in various strongholds of Aristide support," said Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch in New York.

Despite such accusations, Constant held a press conference Oct. 4, organized by the U.S. Embassy and with security provided by U.S. troops, at which he expressed his desire to take part in reconciliation.

"Toto (Constant) went to Gen. (Hugh) Shelton, who encouraged him in his conciliatory attitude," said Stanley Schrager, the embassy public affairs officer. "Toto made it clear he was willing to declare his support for the administration of Aristide and to encourage his following to turn in their weapons and ammunition.

"We don't know if it worked or not," he said.

Constant acknowledges that FRAPH was supported by the army. He is less candid about his affiliation with the CIA.

"A leader has to know how to play with the army, the power, and the people," he said. "I did that."

The first job of leader, he said, is to survive.

"That's why I'm still here, and they (the military leaders) are gone."

Just how long Constant would continue to survive if he circulated freely in Port-au-Prince is another question.

Apart from the decisions to be made by the still-to-be-formed truth commission, Aristide also has the power to interpret how broadly Haiti's new amnesty law is applied.

"If I go to jail, if I have to be judged, he (Aristide) does too, (for) the people who have been killed by his factions," Constant said, referring to threats of burning tire "necklaces" and other acts by Aristide supporters.

"If I was doing something against his supporters, that's a part of amnesty," he said. "If not, I'm sorry for him. This country will separate in two," he said, "and civil war will start."